The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning (26 page)

“Jay, you don’t seem to understand. I’ve got you this time. You’re in violation of the President’s new executive order and you’re a drug dealer.”

“Sherriff am I a drug dealer because I offered you two aspirins? What else have you found?”

“Honestly, nothing yet but we will. If I have to tear your house apart, I’ll find your hidden gold and drugs.”

“Sheriff, my lawyer is on his way here. I think you will be served with court papers ordering you to repair any damage you do to my house. In addition, I’ll be holding you and the county responsible for any damage you do to my home.”

“Not if we find your hiding place.”

“Sheriff, do you really think I’d be dumb enough to hide anything illegal in my house, knowing how much you’d love to nail me on something? Why don’t you sit, share a cup of coffee with us.”

The Sheriff pours himself a cup of coffee. He sips it, saying, “It’s very good, it’s a shame you won’t get coffee this good in jail.”

“Nor you.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You lied to the judge to get the warrants issued. I plan to press charges as soon as you’re done playing your silly games. In fact, since I’m Jewish, I’m planning on filing a Federal Hate Crime suit against you and your department. I have a press release ready to issue as soon as you’re finished. Would you like to read it before it’s issued?”

“Jay, we both know you converted your money into gold.”

“Do we? With what money? Haven’t you heard? We’re broke. Someone hacked my bank accounts last night and drained all of our accounts. I’ve notified the bank of the issue, their lawyers are checking our claim. They’ve confirmed someone logged into our accounts in the middle of the night, they were able to trace the login. Whoever stole our login bounced the signal all over the world. You can have your tech experts check my laptop. You’ll see I didn’t use it last night after 8:00 PM. My laptop wasn’t used to log into our accounts. Your experts will see our accounts weren’t accessed by any of our devices or from our house.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Why don’t you call the bank and ask them yourself? I’m sure their head of security is going crazy trying to figure out what happened to our funds.”

Laughing the Sheriff says, “Jay, this is too funny. You got robbed? Your account is only insured for $250,000. You lost over $20 million, poof just disappeared into thin air. This is so funny. I love the irony of it. A thief robbed by another thief.”

“I don’t find it very funny.”

“I don’t understand why you’re not panicking. I would be.”

“Sheriff, you would panic because your money was gotten illegally, ours was won legally. Our money was deposited in many different accounts, in different banks. We may lose a million, the rest is insured. We’ll be inconvenienced for a while, but only a while. The FDIC will return our funds very quickly, as will the other banks. They can’t afford the bad press if they don’t return it. Your people have been here for a while, have they found anything?”

“Not yet, however, this is a very large house. The largest in the area. If we don’t find anything in the house, we’ll start in your yard and then the fields.”

Reading the warrant, I smile, “Sheriff, no you won’t.”

“What do you mean, no I won’t?”

“Did you read the search warrant? You have permission to search my house. Not my yard, not the farm fields, only the house. If you do anything else without a valid warrant, I will call the State Police and say my rights are being violated. I’m sure the State Police would love to arrest you. Sure you don’t want another cup of coffee or anything to eat?”

“Let me see that warrant again.” I slide it across the kitchen table. My kids and grandkids are marching in and out of the kitchen getting breakfast, they nod and wave to the police officers who are dressed in black tactical gear running room to room in our house. Sammi asks, “Dad, why are they running around like clowns? Why are they all armed? We didn’t do anything to interfere with them.”

“Sammi, ask them.”

Sammi looks at the Sheriff, “Sheriff, why are you tossing everything on the floor? A lot of that stuff is ours. Why aren’t you putting everything back where you found it? There are young children in the house, one of them is my daughter, your people are scaring her by pointing your guns at her. When my Dad’s done with you, I’m going to sue you.”

“Young lady, I’d keep my mouth shut if I were you. Who the fuck do you think you are? And what the fuck are you doing with that cell phone?”

“I’m exercising my rights. I’m recording your cursing in front of my daughter, I’m recording your people tear my daddy’s house apart and the way you’re disrespecting him and all of us. I’m recording how you’re scaring the young children in the house, how you’re breaking items and pointing guns at unarmed people wearing PJs. I’m recording everything which I’m sure my dad’s lawyer and a judge are going to be very happy to see.”

“Young lady, you can’t record a police officer. It’s an obstruction of justice.”

“Yes, I can. Google it yourself, it’s legal in Tennessee. I checked. I’m not threatening you, I’m not interfering with your operation. My husband and I are standing at least five feet away from your people while we record everything you do.”

Before the Sheriff can respond, our lawyer, Brad enters the front door. “Hi Jay, Lacy you’re looking great this fine morning.”

Lacy hugs Brad, “Coffee?”

“Jay’s special brew?”

“Of course.”

“Then yes. By the way, hello Sheriff, I think I have something here for you. Here it is, I have a court issued cease and desist order. It’s signed by Superior Court Judge James, Brownstone.”

“How did you get him to sign this?”

“By presenting him with the evidence this entire raid was bullshit. I showed him the certified letter from the lottery proving that Lacy and Jay won the money. I also have a certified email from his banks that his accounts were hacked last night. The bank's security confirms the access did not, I repeat, did not come from any device registered to Jay or Lacy. No device in this house accessed his accounts last night. You’re on a private witch hunt which the court frowns upon. You’ll also notice you and your department are liable for any damage to Lacy and Jay’s possessions. You invented this entire event because you’re looking for something to hang on my clients. The Judge isn’t very happy with you right now. In fact, I’m expecting you to be receiving a call to shut this investigation down.”

“Councilor, I don’t answer to you.”

“You’ll answer my questions when you’re on the witness stand in open court.”

The Sheriff’s phone rings before he can respond to the Brad, “Hello.”

“Yes, I understand. No, we haven’t found anything yet. Sir, this is a very large house. We haven’t checked the yard or the fields yet. I know what the warrant says. Sir, we only need a little more time. Yes, sir, I hear you. Thank you, sir.”

Punching the end button, the Sheriff looks at Brad saying, “Councilor, it seems you’ve won this round, but one inning doesn’t make the ball game. I’ll be back.”

“Sheriff when you return, you better have cause. Otherwise, I will take you to court.”

“Counselor, I still have the arrest warrant for Jay.”

“If you value your job, I’d suggest you forget it and leave the house. You and I both know you’re here on a fishing expedition. If you arrest him, we’ll add false imprisonment and false arrest to our charges.”

“Mark my words, I’ll be back. I’ll get what I deserve.”

“Sheriff, you may indeed get what you deserve. Did I tell you I’ve been recording everything you’ve said since I arrived? I’m sure the court is going to be very interested in hearing the recording as will the electorate in the next election.”

“Counselor, what do you want?”

“Leave my clients alone.”

The Sheriff turns around, storming out of our house after slamming the door behind him. Brad and I laugh as he orders his people to leave.” I call over to Sammi, “Sam, why don’t you take some pictures of the damage they did to our front yard and anything else you see.”

“Sure dad, happy to.”

Shells sits down between Brad and me, “Dad, are you broke? Did you lose everything? Todd and I can help you. We have a little saved from what you gave us.”

I hug my youngest, “Honey, it’s going to be fine. Don’t worry about a thing. Trust me, everything is going to be OK.”

My phone pings with a text, it says, ‘245.' I smile and nod to Lacy. She says, “Good news?”

“Very good news.” I show the text to Lacy, she smiles, saying, “Is that what I think it means?”

“Yes, that’s pounds, not ounces.”

She screams, “Really?!”

“Yup.”

Shells looks at us like she just discovered her parents are crazy. “Can I ask what’s going on?”

“Honey, just trust us, it’s very good news.” Todd enters saying, “Hey dad, the news just reported that gold broke an all-time record last night, it broke the $5,000 an ounce barrier. I bet you still have some you bought when it was $300 an ounce.”

“Todd, don’t I wish.”

“Is the bank really going to pay you back for the theft of your funds?”

“They’re security department confirms we didn’t transfer it, they can’t track where the money went or how it disappeared. I think they’ll start paying off in a couple of days. They’ve offered us a line of credit until our funds transfer to us.”

“Dad, how do you think the meeting tonight with Tony is going to go?”

“I think his wife Nancy is the one who’s going to swing the vote. She’s the convincing one in a social setting. She’ll make the case very clearly and emotionally.”

While we’re talking, Ricky yells from the family room, “Dad, you should see this.”

We move to the family room, the news reporter says, “The Department of the Treasury just announced that the July and August welfare, disability, and social security payments are going to be reduced and they may also be paid a week late.”

I look at the screen saying, “I think that’s the straw that’s going to crush the camel’s back. There’s no way the majority that relies on the government’s assistance can absorb a hit like this. The payments haven’t gone up to cover inflations’ smack down, let alone be late and reduced. I think the riots are going to start within minutes. Todd, do you remember how to send a general alert to the other families?”

“Yup.”

“Please send one. Everyone needs to know what’s going on. From now on, whenever we go outside we should be armed. Food is going to get even more expensive and may be hard to get. When hyperinflation strikes, all hell is going to break loose.”

Ricky asks, “What’s hyperinflation?”

“It’s when prices jump so quickly you’d need wheelbarrows of money to buy a quart of milk. It happened after the First World War in Germany. It’s one of the major reasons the German economy failed, allowing Hitler to take control of the country.”

“Can that really happen here?”

“I’d say, it’s not only possible, but I'd also say it’s highly probable it’s going to happen within the next three to six months.”

“Is it going to hurt us too?”

“Not as much as others, but yes, everyone is going to be hit by it. Everyone in the country, if not the world is going to suffer. When America goes down, the world will follow.”

Todd and Ricky both say, “Shit. That’s not what we wanted to hear.”

The entertainment segments of the morning news programs are all pulled so the networks can focus on the impact of the government’s statement. A representative from the Department of the Treasury is trying to explain why there’s going to be a delay. “…The country was surprised by the demands made by China. We didn’t expect the People’s Republic to call in the loans the People’s Government made to the Government of the United States. We responded that we’re not going to give the state of Hawaii to China, nor are we going hand over our national landmarks to meet the demanded payments. We want everyone to know we are actively working with the Chinese to get a delay in making the payments. If we can reach an agreement, we’ll be able to meet our domestic obligations in a timely manner. The reason the Secretary made this morning’s announcement is to ensure we can begin making the payments in case we have to.  The delay isn’t one hundred percent a done deal and we could reach an agreement with China at any time. We think it’s a good idea if everyone tweets #Chinashoulddelay. We think millions of Americans messaging the Chinese government will have an impact on their decision-making process. We can get through this rough time if we work together. President Obama is asking those who have, help those in need. Check on your neighbors. If you have extra cans of food, offer them to your neighbors, if you anything you can share, you should do so. We are a country based on volunteering and sharing. President Obama will shortly announce he’s signed a new series of executive orders giving everyone time to make payments on their rent, mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer loans. The President’s executive order freezes all payments for all debts and rents for a period of sixty days. He said he’s sure everyone will support his new executive orders.”